A group of workers at Los Angeles International Airport complained Tuesday that some companies have used post-Sept. 11 business declines as an excuse to lay off union activists. Union members from an airport restaurant, airline catering company and building maintenance firm told the city's Airport Commission that the businesses are violating union contracts and ignoring seniority when deciding who to lay off.

Three security workers who allowed a man carrying knives, a stun gun and tear gas through a checkpoint at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport were fired, the private company that employed them said. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating Saturday's lapse at the United Airlines checkpoint staffed by Argenbright Security Inc. employees.

Just one day after President Bush criticized airport security legislation that would require all baggage and passenger screeners to be federal employees, a top White House aide said Bush would nevertheless sign the bill if Congress approved it. "He wouldn't want to have to sign it, but he would," said Andrew H. Card Jr., White House chief of staff, on NBC's "Meet the Press."

San Francisco International Airport will use a fingerprint scanner to conduct employee background checks. The Federal Aviation Administration is requiring major airports to recheck the backgrounds of employees who have access to tarmacs or planes. Airport officials said the $40,000 scanning system should be installed within weeks, making it the ninth major airport in the nation to use the Identix TouchPrint 2000 technology. The system means background checks will take hours instead of weeks.

The Federal Aviation Administration is ordering airports and airlines to conduct criminal background checks on up to 1 million employees with access to aircraft, jetways and other secure areas, the agency's top official said Wednesday. Until now, such background checks had been required only for employees hired after December 2000 at the 20 largest airports.

After Kenneth Kokason, 47, retired from the Air Force two years ago, he decided to become an airline mechanic. It would be a good, steady job, he thought. It would mean applying the skills he acquired in the military, as a flight engineer, to a job in the private sector. But 10 months into his employment as an American Airlines maintenance technician, Kokason was standing in line at a job fair, looking for work. His job will be eliminated Friday, another casualty of the Sept. 11 attacks.

President Bush would like to see Reagan National Airport reopened--but under much more stringent security, a top administration official said Sunday. The remarks by Andrew H. Card Jr., White House chief of staff, were a clear indication that the administration is responding to political and business pressure to reopen the airport, the only one still closed following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Brookstone clerk Edward Enage stood Monday in front of a four-foot pile of nail clippers, gardening tools and other sharp objects that were pulled from shelves at Los Angeles International Airport. Police went through the store last week, identifying potentially dangerous goods. "They don't even want tweezers," Enage said. As LAX came fully to life Monday, passengers and workers got a taste of just how different it will be.

I found myself outraged after reading "Service Employees Fearful About Jobs" (Sept. 14), about the airport workers (skycaps, security screeners, wheelchair attendants, etc.) who may lose their jobs or may have to accept less lucrative positions to keep working. Huntleigh USA President Joe Tuero has announced that the approximately 50,000 employees they have working at airports across the country will not be getting paid for the three days the airports have been closed. Tuero and his fellow executives are paid handsome salaries and, of course, will probably not see their paychecks shortened by this tragedy.

September 14, 2001 | KAREN KAPLAN and SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON and DAVID COLKER, TIMES STAFF WRITERS

Airports might be slowly getting back to normal, but the job of curbside skycaps has likely changed for a long time to come, perhaps forever. In the wake of the New York and Washington terrorist attacks, the Federal Aviation Administration has banned curbside check-ins that allowed passengers to skip long lines at airport counters. For passengers it was a timesaving convenience.